The Ole Miss Exit Survey: South Alabama came to Mississippi and did not win this time

Ole Miss head coach Matt Luke joins players in singing the alma mater after a 20-point win against South Alabama.

In lieu of the traditional college football Sunday day-after story, The Clarion-Ledger will instead this season offer an “exit survey” following each Ole Miss game. Below, beat writer Antonio Morales and sports editor Hugh Kellenberger relive the Rebels’ 47-27 win against South Alabama.

What is your Tweet-length review of this game?

Hugh Kellenberger: This was the “Suits” of football games. It was fine, but I’ll have forgotten everything that happened within two weeks.

Antonio Morales: Ole Miss’ receivers were great. Its defense was good enough. And that’s all that really mattered against South Alabama.

What was the most memorable sequence of events?

HK: A.J. Brown’s first touchdown was cool. He adjusted his route to find the space between the linebacker and the high safety, and Shea Patterson made one of his better throws of the night. Touchdown. But the second touchdown was really special — when Patterson starts scrambling, Brown is in the middle of the field at the 30 (about six yards from the line of scrimmage). Brown catches the ball — yanking it from the defensive back who probably thought he had a pick, by the way — at the numbers just past the 50.

There’s a reason why it still rankles a lot of Mississippi State fans that Brown, who is from Starkville, is the one that got away from town, and to Ole Miss, no less. He’s a really terrific wide receiver, and we saw evidence of that against South Alabama.

AM: For those Game of Thrones watchers out there, A.J. Brown was the dragon and South Alabama’s secondary was like the Lannister Army. The third quarter is when he burned it all down.

The first touchdown showed off his speed. The second one gave us a look at his strength. The combination is why he’s such a dangerous threat in the passing game, one of many in Ole Miss’ stable.

HK: In all honesty, probably very little. It’s a nonconference game that was decided in the third quarter. We’ll move on. But I will take this opportunity to mention that Ole Miss averaged 3.5 yards per carry on Saturday and its leading rusher gained 34 yards. That’s a problem not solved, and we could very well be talking about it again next offseason.

AM: It was a season-opening win against a Sun Belt team Ole Miss was favored to win big against, so not much I would think. As far as season openers go, this wasn’t a blown 22-point lead on Labor Day against Florida State, so I doubt it sticks in people’s minds that long.

Yeah, so about Ole Miss relying on four wide receivers sets …

HK: What else did we expect? Ole Miss’ tight end position is not a position of strength in any form, and especially not with Dawson Knox (who if you pay attention to what offensive coordinator Phil Longo is saying, is apparently really quite something) out. But Ole Miss’ wide receivers are, and anything that gets more of them on the field is probably the better for the offense.

You can also do this against South Alabama, because South Alabama did not really try to bring much pressure and when it did the offensive line handled it OK (Patterson scrambled more than the preceding statement suggests, but Patterson just likes to scramble.).

AM: Phil Longo clearly said he wasn’t as comfortable with the tight end position with Dawson Knox (foot) out for a few weeks. So how did he approach that problem?

By not using them as much, which led to more of those four-receiver sets. And the receiving group is so talented, why not double down on your strength, especially against a team like South Alabama?

Ole Miss’ receivers combined for 23 receptions. Its tight ends caught one pass for two yards. So as long as Knox is out, this will probably be the case.

Did you see Josiah Coatney?

HK: I’m as skeptical as anyone of junior college transfers. More than half will dramatically disappoint expectations and be gone in two years. Of the rest, most will take at least a year to get adjusted to major college football, be a solid contributor for 12 games and then they’re gone. It’s a quick fix when time, energy and resources are usually better spent on high school prospects.

All of that said, Coatney, who is from Holmes Community College, may be the exception. Or the fact he redshirted last year gave him that buffer year without losing any eligibility. Either way, Ole Miss now enjoys a productive defensive tackle for the next three seasons.

AM: After redshirting last season, Coatney put together a solid debut. He posted five tackles and two tackles for loss. Those TFLs came on back-to-back plays near the goal line in the second quarter and eventually forced the Jaguars to settle for a field goal.

Coatney wasn’t pegged as a starter headed into training camp. Breeland Speaks and Benito Jones were the two guys everyone assumed would start there. But Coatney forced his way onto the first-team defense and his first game action provided reasons for Ole Miss to be encouraged.

Sep 2, 2017; Oxford, MS, USA; A fan cheers before the game between the Mississippi Rebels and the South Alabama Jaguars at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports

OK, so what about next Saturday?

HK: UT-Martin played something called Clarion (no relation to the Ledger) on Saturday. I think the Rebels will be fine.

AM: The score will be more lopsided and the issues probably won’t be as obvious next week against UT-Martin. It’s just another test run for when the schedule gets interesting against Cal on Sept. 16.

Did anything that happened in this game change your opinion — for better or worse — of Ole Miss?

HK: I thought the defense stiffened up when it had to, forcing two field goals on Jaguars trips inside the 5. (There were two other red zone touchdowns, but those came in garbage time). That’s worth bringing up because Ole Miss was the worst red zone defense team in the SEC last season, giving up scores 93.75 percent of the time and touchdowns on 72.92 percent of all opponent trips inside the 20.

Just from the eye test, there was less a sense of inevitability when South Alabama did get near the endzone. Coatney, in particular, played tough in those situations, moving the line of scrimmage.

So if anything made me improve my opinion of Ole Miss football, it was that — when the Rebels had to get a stop, they did (South Alabama was 1-of-10 on third-down conversions, as well). After last year, that’s at least worth noting.

AM: Not really. Ole Miss’ receivers showed why they’ve been so hyped. Shea Patterson made some of the highlight plays everyone expected.

But the questions or faults the Rebels have weren’t really disproved. They averaged 3.5 yards per carry and didn’t tackle well on defense, which is fine against South Alabama and UT-Martin but won’t be against Alabama and Auburn.

So my opinion of Ole Miss hasn’t changed much. It showed it’s good at what we thought it was good at and still has areas it needs to work on.